Speaking Event: Resistance and Revolution - The Arab Spring 2 Years On

When & Where

Redstone Building

2940 16th Street Room

San Francisco, CA 94110

January 26, 2013 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

The Arab Revolutions of 2011 rocked world politics. Starting in Tunisia and Egypt and spreading to Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria, millions of ordinary people took to the streets, occupied their workplaces, and challenged dictatorial regimes that had ruled for decades.

Two years later, the heady optimism of the initial weeks of the uprisings has given way to a drawn out process of social upheaval. In Tunisia and Egypt, dictators Ben Ali and Mubarak were overthrown, but their replacements have failed to deliver on the masses' expectations. The uprisings in Libya, Bahrain, and Yemen, were alternately repressed and coopted by the Gulf States and the West, while the militarization of the uprising in Syria has put a question mark over the outcome of its revolution.

But despite these setbacks, the antagonisms that drove the Arab Revolutions persist--and the revolutionary processes continue to play out. What does the future hold, and what do the revolutions mean for the global struggle against oppression and injustice? Join the International Socialist Organization (ISO) for a panel discussion:

Featuring:

Suzan Boulad blogs for Mideast Youth about Kurdish and other minority rights. She is interested in minority rights and anti-sectarian advocacy in Syria. She recently came back from Jordan where she did some work supporting relief efforts for Syrian refugees.

Wael Elasady is a Palestinian-Syrian activist and member of Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) at Portland State University. He co-hosts One Land, Many Voices, a radio program focusing on Palestine.

Noura Khouri is a long time Palestinian activist in the Bay Area. She recently returned from Egypt, where she spent the past year and a half participating in the revolutionary movement and building a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

Jeremy Tully is a member of the International Socialist Organization and has been active in organizing solidarity with the Egyptian Revolution.